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| SULUWESI | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Ironwood Country) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Suluwesi lies between Irian Jaya and Kalimantan it was once known as the Celebes. It is a beautiful country and relatively unspoilt, very green and lush with lots of water (mangroves, sea, rivers and lakes).; The capital City is Ujung Pandang and I flew directly to it on a Garuda flight from Jakarta. On arrival in Ujung Pandang at around 17:00hrs in the evening I looked for somewhere to stay, and found myself at the newly half-built Yasmin hotel, where the only way to turn off my light in my room was to remove the bulb. It only took American Express credit cards, and I only had a Visa - so this meant that I was escorted by the manager to the nearest bank where I had to draw money on it to pay for my stay! American Breakfast was advertised on the menu, the normal 'beef bacon' etc., each bit of the breakfast arrived separately, the eggs on a plate, the bacon, the toast etc. I wanted it hot!! By the time the whole breakfast arrived it was congealed. The assistant Manager was a bit of a 'dish'!! So I didn't complain! Ikan Mas (Gold Fish) is very popular in Suluwesi and the region - I changed many menus during my trip to 'Golden Carp' in the English translation!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I made arrangements for a private tour of the country with a guy called Annis(known by me as Anus) and a driver Arris, Annis turned out to be the most irritating and useless guide I had ever come across. He was from a tour company called PT. Paldur Tours Travel Services - he assurred me that he had obtained a 'degree' in English but when pressed;it amounted to singing just the first line of 'London's burning' over and over and over again., I spoke more Bahasa Indonesian than he spoke English!! When asked about the wild life in the area, he said 'Yes'.; I said are there any snakes, and he said 'Yes', I then enquired what type of snakes, he said "big snake, small snake', and when pressed for colours he replied; "green snake brown snake". Every time we saw a child riding a water buffalo along the road he'd begin "when I was a boy... I had to walk 3 miles to and from school with no shoes" and he remembered riding on buffaloes too. |
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| THE ROAD WAS WELL WORTH THE BUMPS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| TO SEE WONDERFUL IMAGES LIKE THIS:-` | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| One of the striking things you soon notice about Suluwesi is the importance the inhabitants place on death. Dying is more important than living, and the funerals are lavish.. As soon as a person dies in the Toraja region they are injected with preservative. A special room is allocated in the house for the dead person to remain until the funeral ceremony. Funeral's can take a long time to arrange, and they are very expensive, and require all immediate members of the family to be together, so often take place at National Holiday times, there have been cases of people sometimes waiting for 45 years to be buried. Why? Because depending on the status of a person in society, depends on how many water buffalo go with them to the next world. A replica of the person's house in life is made, and this often includes window boxes and an image of the dead person themselves is carved (if they are rich) or made of straw if they are poor. The eyes and gentials are emphasised on these images The eyes are big and staring.The image is dressed in the best clothes, and is placed on a mock balcony. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| RELATIVELY RECENT INTERNEE WITH OFFERINGS GLASSES AND CIGARETTES (LONDA). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GROUP OF SKULLS PROBABLY BELONGING TO THE SAME FAMILY IN CAVES | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Accompanying the dead go the things most treasured in life. In the old days this would be gold, silver, precious jewels etc; Nowadays it tends to be more Adidas bags, spectacles, football strips.& People were either entombed in their replica house, or in the walls of a cliff faces. The higher up the cliff face the nearer the people were to the gods But it was more a case of the higher up the grave, the less likely it was to be robbed. Even today, you can still see high up on the cliff face at Lemo glittering 'bungs' to graves that have been untouched.; The graves at Londa are particuarly eerie, you have to crawl through caves with nothing more than a petrol lamp, it's slippery and wherever you put your hand out to balance yourself, you can be sure that you will touch a body, or skull Skulls are arranged in family groups. The vertabrae at the top of the neck where it joins the skull is usually the first to snap, and the skulls become disconnected to the rest of the body; So, they are arranged together,by relatives, and all the other bones neatly stacked together either in the caves or hanging graves ie; replica boats (since these people originally arrived in boats and lived in boats all their lives, and when they did settle on the land built their homes to resemble a boat).; The local people visit the dead in the caves and bring food and drink offerings for them throughout the year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The Bugis people have a clothes changing ceremony every 35 years. The wooden effigies on the balconies of the limestone caves develop white ghostly faces from the dripping limestone, and the first settlers were afraid of these ghostlike statues, and they were known as the Bugis men and hence the modern day 'bogeyman' came about. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Baby grave at Kambira. One of the most touching of the graves I visited was the 'baby graves' at Kambira Trees are no longer used to inter babies as the animist religion is extinct, Previously when a baby died before it cut its first teeth, it was buried in the trunk of a tree, and a rush mat was placed over the hole. Over the years the wound in the tree healed and as the tree grew taller over the years the spirits grew nearer to the Gods. |
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| Below is a traditional carvingon a house of cockerels representing the morning; standing on top of the sun. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| TRADTIONAL TORAJA COSTUME WORN BY A LADY - THERE'S ALMOST SOMETHING AZTEC INDIAN ABOUT IT? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| SPICES AND FRUITS AND LOCAL PRODUCE - COMING SOON | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I stayed in the Mountains of Suluwesi too, in a torajan house in the roof, it was very clean and comfortable and the family were very welcoming. local family |
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